The next Chess World Championship will be played between 09. and 28. November 2018 in London. Reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen (Norway) will face 25-year old American challenger Fabiano Caruana, who won the Candidates Tournament in Berlin earlier this week. A first warm-up game between the two superstars will be played during the GRENKE Chess Classic, just a few days after Caruana won the right to challenge the world champion.

In the press conference, immediately after his win in the last round against Alexander Grishuk, Caruana showed that he is looking forward to the game against the world champion. "We are going to play in a few days, so I hopefully will send a message there.”

It is still unclear if the game between the two aces will be played in Karlsruhe during the first part of the event, or during the second part of the Chess Classic in Baden-Baden. The pairings will be determined this Friday, one day before the start of the tournament.

Not only Carlsen and Caruana have a good chance to win the tournament, there are at least three other favorites for the title. Will Levon Aronian (Armenia) be able to defend his GRENKE title and bounce back after his disappointing result in Berlin at the Candidates? Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) and former world champion Viswanathan Anand (India) will start the tournament well rested.

The starting field with ten world-class Grandmasters will be completed by Nikita Vitiugov (Russia), Arkadij Naiditsch (Azerbaijan), the strongest female chess player in the world Hou Yifan (China), Georg Meier (Germany) and Matthias Blübaum (Germany).

Record-breaking GRENKE Chess Open

The first three rounds of the GRENKE Chess Classic will be played in the same venue as the GRENKE Chess Open in the Schwarzwaldhalle Karlsruhe. After the last round of the OPEN Carlsen & Co. move to Baden-Baden, to play rounds 4-9 at the Kulturhaus LA8.

The third GRENKE Chess Open is a record-breaking event. Two days before the start of the tournament on Holy Thursday, more than 1500 chess players from all over the world have confirmed their participation. Etienne Bacrot (France) ist the leader of the pack, followed by Richard Rapport (Hungary) and Wang Hao (China). The number-four seed is Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzbekistan). He is the trainer and second of Fabiano Caruana.

The GRENKE Chess Open ist the biggest Open Chess Tournament in Europe. The event will be played between 29. March and 02. April 2018 in the Schwarzwaldhalle Karlsruhe. There are three groups, and the total prize money is 60.000 Euro. The winner of the A-Open will take home 15.000 Euro.